Field trip post!

This a shot of an ancient burial cave from the time of Solomon (the top part of the cave was taken off). People in that time laid the dead to rest, up to five at a time, in a cave (as we so nicely represent - I'm in the back). A year later they went back and collected the bones and put them in a deep pit buried under one of the walls. The cave I’m in was an archeological find, for they found nine generations of bones in that pit! Not to mention the silver amulet with the phrase from Psalms.

This is very, very blurry, but it’s me in the place where the Last Supper is thought to be held. It’s next to the Church of Annunciation, were Mary went to her “eternal sleep.” Both are away from the Old City walls, in the quarter where the Essenes lived.

This is King David’s tomb. It says “David Melech Yisrael Chai Vikayam,” "David is the King of Israel Living and Established" (I think) - which also happens to be a children’s song. He ruled from 1004-965 BCE, so while we're not sure if this is the actual historical place where he was buried, for 2000 years it's been revered as his tomb and has spiritual significance.

This is a really bad picture of me and Jonathan, but you can see how cramped the tunnel is – it’s a water tunnel built by King Hezekiah around the 7th BCE. They carved it to transport water from the spring that sustained the city; the spring was outside the city walls, and they were afraid of being conquered through a siege, so they tunneled the water to safely inside the city.

Other than these wonderful field trips, I’m doing better in ulpan, have been walking a ton around the new city, and have been very social and getting to know other students at HUC.

(And oh yes – this is for my college friends. I actually impressed people with food I made! It was a salad, but still… fancy lettuce, walnuts, dried cranberries, cut-up apples and parmesan cheese, tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. If you know me, you know I can’t cook, so I was thrilled!)

Til next week....